Topwater Fever
By: Jason Weckerle
The sun sets gently on the horizon, and the wind slows creating a flat surface across the lake. The airis warm as you cast your lure out into the lake. As it hits the water, the only thing your eyes are set onis the lure that settles on the surface. Then the ripples from the lure fade away and you begin yourretrieve. Suddenly, the surface erupts and boils. Your heart nearly jumps out of your chest. You setthe hook into a hard fighting fish and begin the first battle of the evening. As you lift the fish into theboat, you are happy to have landed a nice 4 pound largemouth bass. With your heart still beating likea marching band drum, you release the fish back into the lake to let it live another day. That is thebeauty of topwater fishing. Nothing brings more excitement in fishing then seeing a lure zig zagging,chattering, splashing, twitching, blurping, wobbling, or buzzing across the surface of a calm lake andwatching a fish boil,swirl, or crash the surface. Your adrenaline pumps and your heart skips a beatwhen you fish topwater. The beauty of this fishing is that your eyes never grow tired, and your interestnever goes away because your attention is always focused on your lure coming across the surface.Topwater lures come in many styles, shapes, sizes, and colors to fit several different needs,conditions, and catch different species of fish. I will go through some techniques that will help youenjoy the beauty in the most exciting style of fishing on the planet. After using these techniques yourheart will skip more beats then it ever has in your whole life. Largemouth bass, smallmouth bass,whitebass, northern pike, and muskies all attack topwater lures so you will be able to learn how to fishall these species of fish using one category of lures.
Topwater fishing is best when the water is 55 degreesand warmer, and generally low light conditions such asdawn, dusk, and night will produce the best action. Notto say you wont catch fish during the day but you willhave better success using topwaters during cloudierdays. The reason this is true is because fish normallyhide deeper, in the weeds, or stay away from sunlightand heat to escape the light in their eyes and heat ontheir skin. A fish attack a topwater bait more during thewarmer months because their metabolism is higher andthey are more willing to chase down their food. In colderwater they are just not as aggressive so topwater luresnormally don't produce well. Topwater lures areseparated into catagorys such as poppers, jumpbaits, crawlers, propbaits, floating jerkbaits, andbuzzbaits. Each have a different action, sound, and appeal to fish in different situations. Some ofthese lures even have rattles in them to get the attention from fish that are far away. As long as youfind the fish whether they are cruising the shallows, or suspending in deep water. The key to goodhook sets is to not get over excited and set the hook when seeing the strike but to try and disciplineyourself to feel the strike before setting the hook.
My favorite topwater bait is the jumpbait. Jumpbaits have a side to side zig zagging action known as“walking the dog”. I love fishing these baits when the surface is glass calm and the water is crystalclear to dingy. As long as there is some visibility below the surface and feel these baits can be seenby the fish cruising below the surface you will have a better chance of seeing these baits. Jumpbaitsare cigar shaped baits and don't usually make any noise for the fish to hear so they work best inwater with good visibility. The most popular jumpbait of them all is the Heddon Zara Spook. But myfavorite jumpbaits are the Rapala Skitterwalk. Both Heddon and Rapala are fine choices but I preferthe Rapala Skitterwalk because it has loud rattles, it is easier to work the lure, and I absolutely lovethe paint jobs on them. There are also several other companies that make great jumpbaits with someoutstanding paint jobs but for the price you can't go wrong with the models made by Heddon andRapala. Some jumpbaits have a slight bend on their back and are almost banana shaped. The reasonfor their odd shape is to make it easier on the fisherman to create the side to side action called“walking the dog”. The way you retrieve jumpbaits depends on what the fish will react to. Cast the lureout and when it hits the water you should let the lure settle before starting your retrieve. The reasonfor this is because sometimes fish will strike it even before you start retrieving the bait. Once you startyour retrieve point the rod tip towards the water and off to the side and as you reel the lure applytwitches to the rod tip to create a tightening and slack to the line so it zigzags back and forth.Basically it is a simultanious method that will take some practice. Reeling and jerking or twitching atthe same time can be hard to do at first but it grows onto you and becomes second nature once it isexecuted. Sometimes the fish will want a constant swimming action, and at times they will want aslow retrieve with many pauses throughout the retrieve. I like to use a 7 foot medium/heavy actionbaitcasting rod spooled with either 8- 10 pound test Power Pro or Fireline braid, or 10-20 poundflourocarbon fishing line. In ultra clear water I like the flourocarbon lines because of their invisibility.For heavier fish like muskies and northern pike use heavier equipment such as musky rods and reels.
The next category of lures I will talk about are propbaits. Propbaits are plastic or wooden lures withpropellers on the front and back of the bait or, just on the back of the lure. Because of their propellersthey churn water during the retrieve. These lures are more well suited for fishing in calm water orwater with a slight chop of wind on the surface. You can use the same rod, reel, and line as youwould use for jumpbaits. These lures can be retrieved by pointing the rod tip at the water and rippingthe rod tip back, picking up the slack, and repeating or, ripping the rod tip back and pausing for aslong as you need to in order to get a strike. Again, let the fish tell you what they prefer.With a verywell tuned propbait you can even use a steady retrieve at times to get strikes but, the lure has to betuned so it can have constant turning propellers I like the Rapala Skitter Prop, Heddon Torpedo, andthe Cotton Cordell Boy Howdy just to name a few great propbaits.
Now we'll move onto another popular category of lures called poppers. Poppers are lures with a oddshaped mouth that looks like a fish with it's mouth wide open. Whenr you retrieve these baits use aupward twitch or jerk of the rod tip so the mouth of the bait spits water. With poppers you can fishmurky or clear water and fish slower. Your standard retrieve would go something like rip, pause, rip,pause, rip, pause. Depending on the activity level of the fish you may need shorter or longer pauses.Start with a 3 second pause first and then use longer and longer pauses until you dictate what the fishwill respond to. The longest I ever had to pause a popper was about 25 seconds but that was duringa major coldfront. The popper is what you would call an oldie but a goody. It is actually one of the firsttopwater lures made with the Hula Popper. My favorite poppers are Rapala Skitter Pop, Strike KingSpit N' King, Storm Baby Chug Bugs,Rebel Pop'R, and the old fashion Hula Poppers. The same rodsand reels you would fish jumpbaits and propbaits with will work just fine. These are deadly baits forsmallmouth and largemouth bass in rivers also because of their shape and noise characteristics.When used in light current in shallow water they are absolute dynamite for bass.
Lets now move onto yet another category in the topwater dictionary. I will now fill you in with a lureknown as the buzzbait. Buzzbaits look a lot like the spinnerbaits you see pike and bass fisherman usebut the have a big propeller that churns and chatters the surface. Buzzbaits are effective in andaround heavy weeds, rocks, lily pads, bullrushes, fallen trees, and tree stumps. I have had greatsuccess with buzzbaits around lily pads and exposed weeds and trees where bass hide. I like to caston the edge of lily pads and cover and work it across the surface at a slow to medium speed retrieve.I have seen bass throw lily pads into the hair because they attacked the buzzbait so hard. I use thesame exact baitcasting outfit that I mentioned using in the past few paragraphs but around heavycover I would go with the 8-10 pound test braided fishing line to haul the bass from heavy cover.These baits are also effective fished slowly across the surface at night because of the loud sound theblade produces across the surface. These lures are deadly on bass, pike, and muskies.
For nighttime fishing it is hard to beat a crawler style topwater. These lures normally come with afolded lip ,or a set of fins that allow them to wobble across the surface. These lures are known formaking a very special sound that calls fish to it even in the dark of night.There is something magicalabout hearing the sound of your lure blurping slowly across the surface and being violently interruptedby a big bass in the darkness on the surface. I like to use a black Jitterbug at night because black isactually known to make the most defined sillouette on the surface at night. I just use the sameequipment I mentioned in the previous paragraphs and slowly turn the reel handle to retrieve the baitjust fast enough to make it wobble. The more time the lure is slowly crawling across the surface themore likely a hungry fish will hear it, search for it, find it, and crash it on the surface. The Jitterbugalso works during the daytime retrieving it the same way you would at night.
The last lure I will write about is probably my second favoritetopwater lure. This bait is a legend for it's fishing catchingcapability, it's versatility, and it is often overlooked by anglersas a topwater lure. I am talking about the original FloatingRapala or the Jerkbait. Although this bait can be retrievedbelow the surface, jerked around, reeled at any speed, theycan be effectively fished on the surface and very deadly. Nopredator can resist a vulnerable meal so by twitching theselures right on the surface to mimic a dieing bait fish you cancatch any fish doing this. I have caught bass, walleyes, pike,and even had muskies slam this lure. Bass will take this luremost during spring when they are in the shallows getting readyto spawn. Fish these baits in lakes and rivers that have verygood water clarity. And simply cast them out, let them settle onthe calm surface, and apply light twitches of the rod tip to makethe bait quiver on the surface, dart, and pause. Another retrieveis just a slow and steady reeling retrieve that lets the baitwobble and leave a wake on the surface behind the lure. Theequipment I use is a 7 foot medium/light action spinning rodspooled with 8-12 pound test flourocarbon line, 2-4 pound test braided Power Pro line, or limpmonofilament line in 8-10 pound test. I would go with a quality flourocarbon over all though becausein clear water the fish notice every detail and when you fish slow a invisible fishing may help you havean edge to put more fish in the boat.
Topwater lures are by far the greatest lures to catch fish with when fished properly at the right time. Ifyou soak up the following information it will help you grow an understanding of this fun lure category.Your hands will smell like fish, your heart will jump from your chest, and your adrenaline will rise like athermometer in the heat. When the water warms it is time to get out the topwater lures, set the alarmbright and early, and also fish late evening into the night and you will have the time of your life...